Warm-up begins after weekend chill

Cathy Dedrie, left, and her husband Marc De Roeck are bundled up in the morning chill as they walk along the seawall near the town docks on Sunday. The couple and their son are on vacation here from Puurs, Belgium where temperatures tend to be more frigid. They only brought their scarves and jackets to wear to and from the airport at home in Belgium. (Greg Lovett / Daily News)

Sunday morning temperatures in South Florida plunged into the 30s in western areas and the 40s along the Atlantic Coast after a vigorous cold front funneled in wintry air behind a storm system that brought snow and even chillier weather to the Northeast.

The unofficial low was a chilly 47 degrees in Palm Beach, but by noon temperatures had edged up into the 60s as winds began swinging around to the northeast, bringing in warmer air off the Atlantic.

The low was 45 at Palm Beach International Airport — the coldest temperature since Feb. 11, 2016. It was 51 in Miami, 48 in Fort Lauderdale and 42 in Naples.

It was 39 in Immokalee in inland Collier County and there were scattered readings in the upper 30s west of Lake Okeechobee. Wind chills were in the lower- to mid-30s in Southwest Florida.

“This was the coolest weather of the season so far,” said Chris Fisher, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Miami. “We had a brief cold spell right before New Year’s Day where we dropped into the 40s (it was 49 on Dec. 31), but before that you have to go back to last February to find these kinds of temperatures.”

The warm-up “is going to be a slow process,” Fisher said. “The winds will start to become more easterly tonight and they’ll stay there into next weekend. Looking out over the next two weeks, I don’t see anything this cold coming.”

Monday morning, temperatures should be in the upper 50s along the coast, he said, “but there still may be some 40s inland.”

Sunday morning lows were in the 30s along the Treasure Coast. Gainesville, in North-Central Florida, bottomed out at 28 degrees and it was 24 in Lake City in North Florida.

The warming trend will be kicked off by a wind change from northwest to northeast late Sunday. Highs should climb into the 70s by Monday and Tuesday. Highs late in the week will return to the upper 70s with lows around 70 under mostly sunny to partly cloudy conditions.

Saturday’s cold front delivered 0.19 of an inch of rain to PBIA to round out the first week of the new year. The January total of 0.24 of an inch is still about a half-inch below normal for this point in the month.

Miami reported 0.59 of an inch front the front while 0.15 of an inch fell in Fort Lauderdale and 0.37 of an inch fell in Naples.

The U.S. Drought Monitor’s latest report on Thursday listed all of Palm Beach County — and most of the Florida peninsula — as Abnormally Dry.